Hear the Blank Tapes’ Winsome Garage-Pop Gem ‘Coast to Coast’

California crew's 'Vacation' is out May 14 via Antenna Farm

Vacation, due out soon from Antenna Farm Records, is the Blank Tapes’ leader Matt Adams’ first full album recorded away from his own eight-track. But the new record’s sunshiney “Coast to Coast” stays true to the Los Angeles- and Oakland-based band’s scrappy roots, touring through ’50s and ’60s pop classics with ramshackle warmth. The melismatic harmonies recall the Beatles before they discovered acid, but the Blank Tapes’ oh-so-slightly off-kilter update of the old jangly tropes should also appeal to fans of bands like the Parquet Courts and Foxygen. “We’re changing with the weather / We’re waking up the ghosts / It couldn’t get much better,” Adams sings. That about sums it up: Best Coast, are you listening?!